life is steph
by somethinguncreativeiguessmaybe
Summary: This is set just before the events of Before the Storm, with plans to follow the theoretical story of Steph Gingrich preceding, during, and after the Before the Storm storyline. And yes, someone definitely is crushing on Rachel Amber.


"Recently, I've been thinking. You're a girl with awesome movie tastes, I'm a guy with awesome movie tastes, so do you _maybe_ wanted to go see an awesome movie at the drive-in this weekend and have an awesome time together?"

Oh. Ah. Aw…kward.

Steph could immediately think of multiple things wrong with this. Namely one- which she thought that everyone in Blackwell would've known by now, especially after what had happened last year, but apparently not. Not that she's incredibly surprised though, when it came to this guy. She can only recall ever seeing him in one of three places: the science labs, the clubroom, and maybe a couple of times outside with Brooke.

Maybe she could slip out of this easy.

"Uh… thanks for the offer, but not really sure if that'll work. You know, I'm the stage manager for The Tempest on Sunday."

"Ooh, yeah, of course! Wow, sorry, I knew that, then _after_ the Tempest?"

Dammit. Time to put it bluntly.

"Warren, you know I"m not into guys right?"

"Oh- really? That's… cool! I'll see if Brooke is free instead. Later Steph!"

Within the next couple of seconds, Warren had already hopped off the bench and swifted around the corner, quickly tapping away at his Nokia phone until he was into the boy's dorms and out of Steph's sight. It was a more sudden end to the conversation than expected, but granted, a turnout that could've gone a lot worse.

She quite liked Warren. Just like her, he was unashamedly enthusiastic about the geeky things that he was into. She's never really gotten many of his science jokes, but they made Mikey laugh, and he'd occasionally join them in D&D as _Sir Walril Walgold, the Half-Orc Paladin_. Hopefully things aren't too awkward for him to come and hang out with them again. Either way, Mikey is going to choke himself with a laughing fit when she tells him why Warren asked to speak with her 'alone' later.

"Ah shit…" she muttered, realising that she was still holding the copy of _The Twilight Zone Season 2_ that Warren asked her to pirate. There were still… 5 more minutes until rehearsals began, so she _did_ have time to quickly catch up with him if-

"Steph Gingrich! There you are!"

Steph felt a hand on her shoulder from behind, but she didn't need to turn around to know who it was. How could she _not_ recognise it?

"Rachel Amber. Are you ready for another spiralling tornado of a Mr Keaton rehearsal?"

"I have day-dreamed and night-dreamed of a crashing tsunami, a crushing earthquake, a silencing blizzard, and a _roaring wildfire._ " Rachel said, her hand gently falling away from Steph's shoulder as she stepped around into Steph's vision and locked eye contact with her. "But a spiralling tornado? There is no better natural disaster for a metaphor."

Steph felt her blood pulsing a little faster than before. Even off of the stage and spotlights, Rachel was captivating.

"Wow. I didn't realise that was one of Prospera's lines," she joked.

"Well… I like to go off script and let my heart talk for Prospera. Speaking of whom, and returning to your original question, no, I'm not ready." Steph had expected Rachel to sit opposite her, on the other side of the table of the bench. Instead, Rachel moved around the entire bench and sat down close next to her.

"So, Stage Manager Steph…" Rachel took out a script from her backpack and placed it in Steph's hands. Prospera's lines were highlighted in a fluorescent electric blue, and there was a scattering of notes and annotation in pencil across the page. She made acting seem so easy, but Steph saw that behind the curtains, a lot of effort and dedication had been made to get her to that point. Steph looked towards her, and once again her vision was locked onto those magical hazel eyes.

 _"By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune_

 _Hath mine enemies brought to this shore."_

Rachel- No… _Prospera_ drew her palm across the air in front of Steph, casting her spell.

 _"Here cease more questions._

 _Thou are inclined to sleep. 'Tis a good dullness,_

 _And give it way. I know thou canst not choose._

 _Come away, servant, come. I am ready now._

 _Approach, Ariel. Come."_

Wait. Is Rachel expecting her to speak the parts of Ariel? It's not that she wasn't a good actress. In fact, Mr Keaton had been disappointed that she didn't audition for an acting part in the play. She felt comfortable on stage, but she felt _alive_ behind the scenes as Stage Manager. There was something that sparked excitement in her to explore maps of imagination of characters and these worlds, and to see them come to life, become something _real_. But acting with _Rachel?_

Steph wasn't sure if she was capable of breaking eye contact from that magical gaze in order to check Ariel's first line.

 _"_ So how did I do?"

What a relief. It seems Rachel only wanted to go over the first paragraph.

"Ah- um-" Steph mentally cursed at her body for blushing a little as she finally snapped out of her Rachel Amber trance, blinking more than a few times to force her eyes to focus on the script. After reading over Prospera's paragraph, she slides the script on the table in-between them.

"You said ' _are'_ instead of ' _art_ ' in the line ' _Thou art inclined to sleep.'."_

 _"_ Right, the hip Shakespearean lingo." Rachel took out a pen, underlining the sentence, and circling the word. "Thou _art_ a good spotter, Steph."

"Then on the last line, it's _my_ Ariel in ' _Approach, my Arial.'."_

 _"_ And you're right again. _Approach, my Arial…"_ Again, she underlined the sentence, and circled the word which, this time, was ' _my'_. "I've got to remember to claim _possession_ of people that I like…"

"Ariel's a spirit, not really a person," Steph corrected.

"Haha, Steph, you're so cute!"

More like _Rachel_ is cute when she laughs.

"What made you think that I'm cu-" _Possession. Of people she likes. Possession of people. She likes. Possession of people she likes._

If she was only slightly blushing earlier, she was definitely ruddied up in _Dpt. Steph's Face_ now. (Currently desperately trying to think of monster dungeons for Elamon instead of the _other_ kinds of dungeons she came across on the internet last night.) Failing to keep a clean composure around Rachel Amber? Check.

"-I… did not expect that." She lightly tugged at her beanie, low-key wishing it was socially acceptable and physically viable to hide behind it.

"Good. Don't expect things from me, because I'll only ever keep wanting to find ways to surprise you."

There were those magical eyes again, making it impossible for Steph's vision to break free from, making the length of time passing seem indistinguishable. Is Rachel Amber a sorceress? Just _how long_ have they been looking into each other's eyes again?

" _Ahem._ I didn't realise _you two_ were such _BFFs."_

There was another voice that Steph didn't need to turn around to recognise.

" _We're_ just going over a scene, but Victoria, I didn't realise you cared," Rachel replied.

"I- I _don't._ But unfortunately for _you two_ , Mr Keaton _does_ , and you're both _late."_


End file.
